the enemy six months before, he maintained the
unequal fight until his limbers were empty, and he received
peremptory orders from Stuart to withdraw.

On Pelham's retirement, Franklin, bringing several batteries forward
to the Richmond road, for more than half an hour subjected the woods
before him to a heavy cannonade, in which the guns on the Stafford
Heights played a conspicuous part. Hidden, however, by the thick
timber, Jackson's regiments lay secure, unharmed by the tempest that
crashed above them through the leafless branches; and, reserving
their fire for the hostile infantry, his guns were silent. The
general, meanwhile, according to his custom, had walked far out into
the fields to reconnoitre for himself, and luck favoured the
Confederacy on this day of battle. Lieutenant Smith was his only
companion, and a Federal sharpshooter, suddenly rising from some tall
weeds two hundred paces distant, levelled his rifle and fired. The
bullet whistled between their heads, and Jackson, turning with a
smile to his aide-de-camp, said cheerfully: "Mr. Smith, had you not
better go to the rear? They may shoot you." Then, having deliberately
noted the enemy's arrangements, he returned to his station on
Prospect Hill.

11.15 A.M.

It was past eleven before Meade resumed his advance. Covered by the
fire of the artillery, his first line was within eight hundred yards
of Jackson's centre, when suddenly the silent woods awoke to life.
The Confederate batteries, pushing forward from the covert, came
rapidly into action, and the flash and thunder of more than fifty
guns revealed to the astonished Federals the magnitude of the task
they had undertaken. From front and flank came the scathing fire; the
skirmishers were quickly driven in, and on the closed ranks behind
burst the full fury of the storm. Dismayed and decimated by this
fierce and unexpected onslaught, Meade's brigades broke in disorder
and fell back to the Richmond road.

For the next hour and a half an artillery duel, in which over 400
guns took part, raged over the whole field, and the Confederate
batteries, their position at last revealed, engaged with spirit the
more numerous and powerful ordnance of the enemy. Then Franklin
brought up three divisions to Meade's support; and from the
smouldering ruins of Fredericksburg, three miles to the northward,
beyond the high trees of Hazel Run, the deep columns of Sumner's
Grand Division deployed under the fire of Longstre